TCD MS 3416 page 34
[June 1916]
saw the city of MAIDAN, which is about 40 miles <south> of DIARBEKR, where the Russians were at that time reported to be within gun range.
We were travelling now through a fertile valley intersected with small streams. Many small round topped hills rose out of the cornfields which stretched for miles around, on each of these hills was a stone-built village in which not a sign of life was visible – these villages had all only recently been Armenian villages, and the massacres of these unhappy people had only just taken place. An Arab soldier admitted the atrocities with satisfaction, and informed one of our number that he thought about 800 Armenians had escaped to the hills. This meant that anything up to some 30,000 men, women, and children, had been massacred.
On our next march we passed wells by the roadside full of human remains recently murdered, the Arab guards explained derisively that they had been Armenians. On our last stage into Ras-el-Ain, which we reached at night on June 8th, we passed a cavalry brigade, a bridging train, and a battery of guns on their way down South; the personel of these were the best equipped and best